Chapter 38 Magic Sealing
Isandro was the only Arcanist among the human trafficking ring's leaders──a true outlier.
While most were in it just for the money, he hunted down those with Arcanist potential from the kidnapped and ran brutal experiments on them until they were broken. That made him way more dangerous in the eyes of the boss.
Before the military could storm his research facility, he set it on fire himself. They had to kill him before learning what those horrific experiments were really about, so to this day, no one knows what he was trying to achieve.
But if they'd held back that day, I would have been the one who died.
Feeling like I was being baited, I headed for the warehouse where a strong magical aura was deliberately radiating.
Checking my watch, it was just past 8 PM.
Yuruyana had probably left the dining hall and was enjoying a long bath, taking advantage of my absence. Now, I pushed open the heavy door.
I raised my baton and stepped inside slowly, letting my eyes adjust.
Faint moonlight filtered through a high window, revealing a spacious room cluttered with wooden crates. At the far end, a shadow sat cross-legged atop the piled crates.
I lit my torch and illuminated his face.
"...So, you came, Tsukumo Kreis."
His hoarse voice growled low.
Half of the tattoo on his face was rotted, but it was undeniably Isandro's face and voice.
"Looks like you remember me well."
"I remember. I definitely killed you once."
He was the most dangerous foe I'd faced, someone whose life-threatening aura stuck with me──and with that unforgettable face, forgetting him wasn't an option.
Isandro snorted in response.
"But here you see, I'm still alive."
"What do you want from me? Revenge?"
If he was after terrorism or royal assassination, exposing himself now was a terrible idea──especially with the entire city under military lockdown.
It made more sense that he wanted to be found, aiming to feed info directly to me, the one who killed him.
Luka guessed, and I agreed, that the target wasn't the Founding Festival, but me personally.
"Was it satisfying, sending so many after me?"
"Not at all. They just did what they wanted because they said so."
Isandro stepped out of the wooden crate, shrugging his shoulders exaggeratedly and shaking his head.
"If I could land a hit on you, I wouldn't have fallen."
The big shots are either still in jail or already dead, so the nobles who got away were already on the bottom rung──no one thought they'd make a difference after they escaped.
These days, the middle-class Kreis family is living better than those aristocrat losers ever did.
Maybe that even hurt their pride.
"Then why'd you bring 'em into the fold?"
"They were useful for having a presence in the capital. But then they started running wild and forming a gang on their own, getting on my nerves."
He was gonna cut ties with them soon anyway, so he decided to pick a fight with me while he was at it.
They've got a serious grudge against me, but you can't help feeling sorry for them.
"You're alive, that's what matters, [Two Star Demon]. I won't rest until I kill you myself."
Suddenly, the smirk on Isandro's face vanished, and the ground at my feet faintly glowed.
The torchlight faded, and the body reinforcement magic I always had active on walks cut out, making my body feel heavy.
"An anti-magic field?"
He deliberately appeared at a point where I would notice him, guiding me right to this position.
An anti-magic field cancels out any Arcane Art spells drawn with magic. It keeps going until the Arcanist's magic runs out, they lose consciousness, or you move a certain distance away.
"Now you're no longer an Arcanist."
His face twisted in agony, the scars from his burns pulling tight.
"Don't worry, I won't kill you just yet. [Hail]."
Isandro raised his arm high, his fingertips glowing.
A massive amount of ice appeared in the air, the sharp tips aiming right for me.
As his arm came down, the ice shards rained down in unison, creating a sound close to explosions echoing through the warehouse.
I dodged the onslaught of ice and the collapsing crates.
He's trying to rough me up, not deal a fatal blow, so the trajectory was one I could avoid on purpose.
It's not that hard to dodge.
"That big guy would've made a decent shield, though."
A laugh echoed from the darkness.
So they even know about Thomas.
I'm bursting out from the rubble, closing in fast just by following the voice.
Isandro mutters as he ducks beneath the swinging baton's tip.
"[Shadow Tag]"
Just as I take another step forward, a shadow grabs my foot.
The shadow wrapped around my right leg won't come off with a little tug.
And now that magic's gone, there's no way to break free.
"Pathetic, an Arcanist who can't use magic!"
I throw a thin knife from my bag at the laughing silhouette, but it's stopped by an invisible shield just before it lands.
At the same time, I sense another magic to my left and throw a second knife without even turning.
A scream cuts through the dark, followed by a thud after a beat.
So there really was a partner hiding nearby.
"You talk a lot. Were you always like this?"
Isandro frowns at my quiet jab.
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